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Chai Ching
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Psalms chapter number 39.
I'll give you a minute to turn there in Psalms chapter 39.
The Bible reads beginning of verse 1.
Psalms 39 verse 1.
I said, I will take heed to my ways that I sinned not with my tongue.
I will keep my mouth with the bridle while the wicked is before me.
I was dumb with silence. I held my peace even from good.
And my sorrow was stirred.
My heart was hot within me while I was musing. The fire burned.
Then spake I with my tongue.
Lord, make me to know mine end and the measure of my days,
what it is that I may know how frail I am.
Behold, thou hast made my days as in handbreath and my ages as nothing before thee.
Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.
Selah.
Surely every man walketh in a vain show.
Surely they are disquieted in vain.
He heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them.
And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee.
Deliver me from all my transgressions. Make me not the reproach of the foolish.
I was dumb. I opened not my mouth because thou didst it.
Remove thy stroke away from me. I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.
When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity,
thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth.
Surely every man is vanity.
Selah.
Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry.
Hold not thy peace at my tears, for I am a stranger with thee
and a sojourner as all my fathers were.
O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more.
Let's go ahead and pray.
Dear Lord, again, thank you for the time that we have together
to come and hear the preaching of your word.
Lord, I pray again that your Holy Spirit would be with us tonight,
that you'd be present.
And, Lord, that you would guide my thoughts
and help me to share that which is edifying to your people
and, Lord, that you would glorify your Son in us.
We ask tonight in Christ's name. Amen.
So, you know, a very concerning or comforting thought
is the thought that God knows all our thoughts.
And I know that's kind of a mouthful right there.
Let me say it again.
You know, it can be either a very concerning thing
or it can be a very comforting thing
when we understand and know and think about the fact
that God is one who knows all of our thoughts.
And I don't say that, you know, just kind of, you know, metaphorically or anything.
God literally knows all of our thoughts.
This is something that the Bible teaches.
It's in the very nature of God that God would know all our thoughts.
And I think that's why it's very important that we think about
and, you know, think really, I'm not trying to be funny,
but just to kind of say we need to think about what we think about.
Okay?
And what we need to do, and I've titled the sermon,
is get a thought life.
Get a thought life.
Sometimes you'll hear that phrase that people will say to someone else
if they're, you know, telling them to, you know, ship up or, you know, clean up
or get things right.
They'll say, hey, you know what?
You need to get a life.
Right?
Well, sometimes we need to step back
and realize that we ought to have a thought life.
We need to get a thought life.
If we're one who doesn't really meditate on the things of God,
if we don't think about the Lord, you know,
we really ought to begin to do so because of the fact
that God knows all of our thoughts.
In fact, if you would, you can keep something there in Psalms 39,
but go over to 1 John 3, 1 John chapter number 3.
You know, there's many places in the Scripture
where we learn about God's omniscience or God's all-knowing,
the nature of God's all-knowingness.
You know, God knows everything.
God knows the beginning from the end,
and God knows every single thought that we think before we even think them.
The Bible says in Genesis 6, 5,
And God saw the wickedness of man who was great in the earth,
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
God, you know, before the Flood looked down
and saw that every single imagination of man's heart was only evil continually.
You know, that just shows us that God, again, knows our thoughts.
The Bible says in Psalm 94, verse 11,
that the Lord knoweth the thoughts of man.
God knows every single thought that we have,
and He says of those thoughts that they are vanity.
And isn't that the truth?
Don't we sit around and often find ourselves
just thinking about things that are completely useless,
things that are worthless, things that are just vain,
maybe not even necessarily sinful or bad,
but just things that really don't have any value,
things that we just kind of let our minds drift
and just kind of think about whatever we want to think about
or let whatever we're told to think about enter into our minds.
We just consume all kinds of media.
We just entertain our thoughts constantly.
The Bible says that God knows our thoughts.
And God can't help but know our thoughts.
I mean, this is the nature of God, the fact that God is all-knowing.
The Bible says where you are there in 1 John 3, verse 20,
for if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart
and knoweth all things.
You know, sometimes we might recall something
and we might think about something we did or we said
or something we didn't do or should have done
or whatever it might be.
Something might come into our own heart
and we might have this thought in our heart
and that thought might condemn us.
We might feel bad about it.
We might feel guilty.
It might condemn us in our own hearts.
What we have to understand is that not only do we see that thought,
not only do we know what's in our heart,
but God, who is greater than our heart, knows all these things as well.
And again, I'm just making the point that God knows our thoughts
and that's why we need to make sure that we guard our thoughts.
That's why we need to make sure we have a good thought life.
The Bible says that great is our Lord and of great power.
His understanding is infinite.
So when it comes to this idea of God knowing our thoughts
and just because of the fact that He is all-knowing
and that we need to make sure that we have a thought life,
you say, well, what kind of thought life should we have?
Really, we should have a thought life that is pleasing to God.
If God knows all our thoughts, if God can look down in Genesis
and see that the thoughts of man are only,
the imaginations of man are only evil continually,
if God can look down and say that He knows all the thoughts of man
and that they're vanity, you know, we should make it a point in our life
to make sure that our thoughts are pleasing to Him.
And this is something that you have to work at.
This is something that's a struggle and no one is going to be perfect in this area.
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter number 10.
2 Corinthians chapter number 10.
The thing is, we're living in a day and age where
people just open their minds up to all kinds of things.
You know, people just start to watch things,
people just look at things, people just listen to things on the internet.
You know, when it comes to any kind of media,
people just pick up whatever book.
People go to universities, people go to schools,
people go to all kinds of institutions.
People seek out, you know, knowledge here and understanding there
and they fill their heads with the thoughts of others.
And we should always, you know, there's nothing wrong with that obviously
if what we're taking in is good and beneficial
and obviously there's a lot of things we can glean through different sources
but, you know, we shouldn't just be people that go through life
just letting anybody and everybody just, you know, give us their input on things.
And just having, you know, what's the big phrase, an open mind.
You know, that's what a lot of times people will accuse, you know,
a Christian of being, oh, you're so narrow-minded, you're so closed-minded.
Well, it's like good night, a trash can has a lid.
You know, if it's any good, you know, most trash cans have a lid.
And the same thing, if you walk around with an open mind in life,
don't be surprised if the world and Satan, the devil, you know,
just tries to throw his trash in there.
You know, you should be discerning about what you let into your mind
and not just let every single thing come into your mind.
You know, an open mind will get trash thrown in it.
In fact, we're commanded to direct our thoughts.
You know, our thoughts are something that we can take control of.
They're things that we can direct.
And again, not without effort, obviously, but look at 2 Corinthians 10, verse 4.
You know, we can direct our thoughts, it says here,
for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal
but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
So these weapons that we have, this casting down of imaginations,
as it says in verse 5, is something that is mightily done through God.
Obviously, to take control of your thoughts, to direct your thoughts towards God,
it's going to require the help of God.
It's going to require the help of God's Word.
But praise God, you know, we have that ability.
We have things that are pure and virtuous and right and holy
and righteous to meditate on.
We have the Word of God to think about that can speak to us
and that can be a delight unto us
and can help us to direct our thoughts towards God.
And that's something we ought to do.
It says we are to be, what, verse 5, casting down imaginations
and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God
and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
People who get saved, especially those who get saved later in life,
a lot of times they come into Christian life with a head full of the world's wisdom.
They come into the Christian life with the world's philosophy
when it comes to marriage, when it comes to child rearing,
when it comes to this social issue or that social issue or whatever it is.
A lot of times they bring all these preconceived notions naturally into the Christian life
and what they have to learn to do is to bring those imaginations down
to cast down every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God.
A lot of the things that we've been taught growing up,
a lot of things that the world is teaching us is contrary to the knowledge of God.
It's in contradiction to what the Word of God would teach.
In all these different areas, when it comes to marriage, child rearing,
those are real common areas, finances, you name it.
The world has an opinion on it and it's our job to bring those thoughts
into captivity to the obedience of Christ, to direct our thoughts unto the Lord.
We are to direct our thoughts to what? To avoid sin and follow after righteousness.
A lot of sin can take place in the mind. A lot of sinful things go on in the mind.
In fact, that's where all of our actions begin.
Before we ever do anything or say anything, we typically think it.
There's a thought process that takes place in the mind and then it brings forth sin.
If you would, go back to Psalm 38. I know I had you at 39, but go to Psalm 38.
There's one chapter back. He says in Psalm 38, I know I quoted this Thursday night,
it says in verse 4, stand in awe and sin not.
That standing there is the idea of holding still, of being idle, of taking a moment.
He says there, stand in awe and sin not, commune with your heart upon your own bed.
Again, your bed would be some place where you're not getting any work done,
where you're holding still and be still.
It's this standing, it's this being still that he's talking about here.
This is a way that we can begin to direct our thoughts.
When we stand still in awe and sin not and we commune with our own heart upon our bed and be still.
This is something that I think we should all be putting into practice in our life.
It's something where we're meditating and we're thinking about the word of God,
where we're being still and we're meditating on God, where we're standing in awe.
Here's the thing, the more that we do that, the more we truly will be in awe of God.
If you've lived your whole Christian life, if you're living your Christian life
and there's never been a moment where you've just been dumbfounded by the goodness of God,
where you've never just been confounded by how great God is,
if you've never just been in awe of God's grace and God's mercy,
you should probably make it a point to do a little bit more meditating on the word of God.
You should probably make it more of a point to spend time thinking about him,
communing with your own heart upon your bed, thinking about the Lord and these things
instead of just filling our minds with all the vanity that's out there today.
We need to be directing our thoughts. Why? Because our thoughts lead to actions.
Our thoughts lead to actions.
The Bible says in James chapter 3, it says,
If any man offend not in word, the same as a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
And he goes on, of course, in James 3 and talks a lot about being able to tame the tongue.
He says that the tongue no man can tame. So it's this idea that this is a struggle that we have
to bring the tongue, to bring the words of our mouth into subjection.
And he says that if a man offend not in word, if a man is able to bridle his own tongue,
the same as a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
And I remember hearing this, and I've always thought about this, never ever read that verse,
is that it's this idea that if you can tame your tongue,
you're probably going to be able to pull a lot of other things in your life into subjection.
You're going to be able to tame what? You're also going to be able to bridle the whole body.
Because the tongue is the most unruly member that we have.
We'll be real good about making sure we don't get off into this sin, or run off into this sin,
we're not committing all these other things in our flesh, but boy, that tongue gets away from us, doesn't it?
And it's so easy to just make a comment, to just say something, to just not have the filter screwed on all the way,
and just whatever comes to mind just comes right out the mouth, and then oops,
and someone's offended, or someone's hurt, or whatever.
Or we get ourselves into trouble, we say things we shouldn't say.
Again, where does the words of our mouth begin?
I read it this morning, out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaketh.
So again, it's this idea that if we can tame our mind, if we can direct our thoughts, that's going to help us with our tongue.
And if we can go all the way back to the root of the problem, the heart, the mind, our thoughts,
and begin to direct those things, then we're not going to have all the problems that we have,
we're going to have a lot less struggle in the flesh, we're going to be able to bridle the whole body.
Directing our thoughts is going to obviously lead our actions.
We ought to direct our thoughts because we need to avoid sin, and we need to follow after righteousness.
Look, I know this isn't the most entertaining sermon, I know this isn't the most interesting idea,
thinking about your thought life.
But this is something that's going to help you in the Christian life,
this is something that's actually going to help you live a life that brings glory to God,
this is something that's going to actually help you bring God's blessing in your life,
and help you to avoid a lot of heartache when you begin to take control of your own thoughts,
and not just letting the world fill your head with all kinds of nonsense that's out there.
And this is important to think about because of the fact that today we have these devices,
and these things are really good with just filling our heads,
and people have gotten really good at just using these things to just spend hours and hours
and just letting the world just pour it all in there.
And this is a new thing, these phones.
I know I talk about it maybe more often than you'd probably like,
but here's the thing, this is kind of a new phenomenon.
I don't think we can really even fully understand the impact that these things are going to have on our lives.
The internet, the tablets, the laptops, all of this digital information that can just come at us 24-7.
I've only had a cell phone for 12 years, and I'm not that old.
12 years is not that long ago. I think it was like the iPhone 5 12 years ago,
and they're already on to what, like 14 now?
So it's not like these things have been around that long, and yet people are using them.
And look, you say, are you against them? Obviously not.
I mean, these things are either, you know, I was thinking about, they're really a double-edged sword, aren't they?
These can be one of the most powerful things for time management, just from the aspect of time management.
I mean, you've got alarms, you've got calendars, you've got stopwatches, you've got reminders, you've got notes,
you've got all kinds of things that are going to help you manage your time and be productive and use your time wisely.
Or, on the other hand, they can be one of the greatest wasters of your time ever.
You say, what's the greatest way to waste your time? It's right here.
And look, we could all probably come up with other ways to do it, but this makes it real easy, doesn't it?
You know, some things we waste our time at, we probably won't do as much of because it's boring.
Because, you know, it's not going to sit there and give us just this continual dopamine release like these things do.
And they do. And I want to go on and on about it because I know I harp on that all the time.
But, you know, it's an important thing to think about.
You know, when it comes to this idea of our thoughts, what are you spending your time thinking about?
Is it just some feed somewhere that the world's telling you, here's what to think about, here's the next news story,
here's the next, you know, social media trend or whatever? Is it just these things that the world wants us to think about?
Or are we spending the time meditating upon the Lord?
And yet today, you know, we have so many people today, even Christians, who just seem to be kind of, you know,
living a life where they don't really have any hope.
You know, they're depressed. I mean, we've got, you know, we have, you know, all this information coming at us,
all this entertainment, all this dopamine that's just free and easy to access.
And dopamine's a drug that makes you feel good. It's a naturally released, you know, hormone in your brain that makes you feel good,
that makes you want to do things. And yet we're living in a time where young people are more depressed than ever.
You think that's a coincidence? I don't.
You say, what's the solution? Meditating upon God?
You know, I've said it before and I'll say it again, getting your face out of Facebook and getting your face in God's book.
Getting off the phone and cracking open the Word of God and reading it and meditating on it.
You know, you say, why should I meditate upon the Lord? Well, meditating on God will actually give you hope.
You know, meditating and thinking about God is something that ought to give you hope.
Obviously, and if you would, go to Lamentations chapter number three.
You know, there's a lot of different things we could think about when it comes to thinking about the Lord.
I mean, the Lord is multifaceted. You know, there's a lot of negative things that come with God.
God is, you know, obviously a God of judgment and God is one that chastens.
You know, but even that, even thinking about and meditating upon the negative things is still beneficial for us.
So, you know, there's just some gnarly stuff in the Bible. There's just some things in the Bible that are hard.
There's just some things in the Bible that are just kind of negative.
Yeah, but even the negative things that are in the Word of God, if we think about those things, they will still help us.
And they will still give us hope. I mean, in Lamentations, look at verse three, or chapter three, verse 18.
Excuse me, it says in chapter three, verse 18, and I said, my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord.
Now, maybe that's not the verse you want to memorize.
But notice what he goes on and says here. Jeremiah goes on and says in verse 19,
remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
He said, look, my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. Why?
Because I was remembering mine affliction. I was thinking about all the hard things that I went through.
I'm remembering mine affliction, my misery. I'm remembering the wormwood and the gall.
I'm remembering the judgment of God. I mean, Jeremiah is the one who saw the wrath of God poured out upon his people.
They went into captivity. But notice what he says in verse 20, my soul hath them still in remembrance.
So what's he talking about? He's talking about remembering this.
Remembering something very negative. He's thinking about things that God did in his life that were negative.
Wormwood, affliction, misery. He said, my soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in me.
You know, we should even meditate upon the things that might not necessarily make us feel good.
Maybe we should meditate upon the shortcomings and the failures.
Maybe we should meditate upon the chasting that we've experienced.
Maybe we should meditate upon the negative things that have come into our life, even yea from the hand of God.
Because any godly parent knows that negative reinforcement is a powerful influence.
And it's the same way with us and God. If we meditate upon and we think about the negative things.
That God is a God of judgment. That God is a God of wrath.
That God is not just going to let us get away with sin. That God is one that will come down on us.
You know, that's something that you should think about.
That's something you should, you see how directing your thoughts towards the Lord will keep you out of sin.
When you start to think about, oh not just, oh I shouldn't do that because the Bible says I shouldn't.
But if I do that, God is going to judge me.
You can start to see how meditating upon the Lord is going to keep you from doing things you shouldn't.
Because you'll be thinking about the fact that there's misery and affliction and call and judgment.
And you'll be humbled. That's what he said there. My soul hath them in remembrance.
I didn't forget about these things. And that's the world we're living in today.
No one wants to think about anything negative.
And no one wants to, you know, everything has to, we have to be careful, all the snowflakes.
You know, everything has to be, everything we say has to be a warm fuzzy.
You know, we can't express any cold pricklies. No one knows what I'm talking about.
No one's even heard that terminology. Who here has ever even heard that?
Right? Couple people. Okay, yeah, so did you hear that in about fifth grade, sixth grade?
Maybe you heard it in another sermon of mine. I remember, yeah, that's where it is.
I remember in the fifth grade, they sat us all down. It was just like a, it wasn't like a part of the class.
They just got all the kids together because everyone was being so mean.
And kids can be mean, I get that. And say, look, don't say anything negative.
Basically they're saying you've got to make sure you say warm fuzzies to people. That's what they told us.
When you say something, ask yourself, is that making that person feel warm and fuzzy, or is that a cold prickly?
And look, I get there's that, there's a level of, you know, usefulness to that.
We shouldn't go around being, you know, belligerent jerks.
But the problem is that today it's like you can't say anything negative.
But can you see from, from lamentations here how actually remembering and meditating and thinking upon negative things
will actually humble you and give you hope?
You know, sometimes we need to have negative things reinforced in our life.
You know, I would rather just sit there and meditate upon the fact that God is a God of judgment than finding out the hard way.
But notice also in this, in this chapter, in fact the next verse, he says, this I recall to mind, therefore have I hope.
Now you say, well, is he recalling the previous verses to mind? I don't think so.
I think verse 20 is saying, my soul hath them in remembrance, right? What does he have in remembrance?
The affliction, the misery, the worm or the gall. My soul hath them in remembrance has humbled him.
This I recall to mind, therefore I have I hope. What is the this that he recalls to mind?
It is the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassion's fail not.
You know, there's also still, you know, the aspect of God's, you know, grace and mercy that we can also recall to mind.
You know, when you meditate upon the Lord, you know, it's going to give you hope, one, because it's going to keep you out of trouble
when you think about the negative influences, but also when you recall to mind that God is merciful.
He says there that it is of the Lord's mercy, in verse 22, that we are not consumed because his compassion's fail not.
They are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness.
You know, we sing about that, people write that on the walls of their home and praise God for that, it's a great verse, very famous.
You know, verses 18 through 20, not so much.
You know, we were probably reading that and didn't even see, you know, oh yeah, 21 through 23, I know those.
But 18 through 20 are also part of the context here.
You know, when we think of the Lord and we meditate upon him, the things we should think about are both the negative things of God
and also the positive things of God. Think about God's chastening, think about God's wrath, think about God judging.
But also remember that God is very merciful.
You know, that's a wonderful thing to meditate upon.
And sometimes people need that too. People need to meditate, think about the fact that, you know, it's not over.
Life's not over. You know, sometimes people make mistakes, people do things, people mess up.
But that doesn't mean that life's over. You know, life goes on.
You know, if you're still out there, sucking air, God still has a plan for you.
If the heart's still pumping, you know, and God hasn't taken you home yet, you know, God is showing mercy to you.
God still has something that you can do, you can still serve God.
You know, maybe that's something other people need to meditate upon.
You know, some people might need to be meditating upon the affliction and the misery and the gall.
You know, maybe some of the young people who are just thinking about all the sin they want to go get into.
Or they want to get away from mom and dad, they want to get away from the church and get away from all those fuddy duddies
and all those sticks in the mud that are, you know, ruin their good time.
You know, maybe you ought to meditate upon the fact that God judges, that God will bring affliction, that God will bring misery.
You know, and you don't believe me, well, you know what, just mark it down right now.
You know, and if you really want to, if you're so stupid you want to go find out the hard way,
you know what you'll end up saying? Is that I was right.
And that everyone trying to warn you was right.
You know, it'd be better to just take us at our word.
Maybe that's what you need to think about. Maybe that's where you need to direct your thoughts.
Maybe that's where your thought life needs to go. I don't know.
But then there might be other people out there who have already experienced the affliction,
who have already experienced the misery, have already been humbled in that way.
You know what, maybe they need to recall to mind that it's of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed.
That his compassion fails not, that they are new every morning, that life isn't over.
You know, these are the things about, you know, your thought life.
These are the elements that ought to be there, the meditating that needs to take place.
Meditating on the Lord, it gives hope. Meditating on the Lord is going to give you perspective.
And if you would, go back to Psalm 39. Psalm 39.
You know, Psalm 39 is a passage I've been, this is a great example of something that I've been meditating on for several weeks.
I've been wanting to preach something in Psalm 39, and I guess this is it.
But it says in verse 1, I said I will take heed to my ways that I said not with my tongue,
I will keep my mouth with the bridle while the wicked is before me.
I was dumb with silence, I held my peace even from good, and my sorrow was stirred.
You know, this sounds like somebody who's doing some introspection, doesn't it?
It sounds like somebody who's kind of turning inward, who's holding their peace.
They're being dumb with silence, they're holding their peace, and their sorrow is stirred.
Notice in verse 3, my heart was hot within me while I was musing.
You know, musing means thinking. While I was meditating, while I was musing, the fire burned.
Then spake I with my tongue.
You know, there ought to be times in our life, you know, often in fact, where we muse and we meditate and we think about things.
The things of the Lord.
And when he did that, you know, the fire burned, then I spake I with my tongue.
I want to point out this, though, is that look at verse 4.
When he decides after keeping silence, after keeping his peace even from good,
after musing, after just being quiet and thinking about and meditating upon the things of God,
notice verse 4, how it begins, that first word there, Lord.
Lord.
You know, when we start to, you know, turn inward, we start to think about the things of God,
you know, that's going to probably move us to speak with God, to actually have communion with God.
He said, Lord, make me to know in mine end and the measure of my days what it is that I may know how frail I am.
You know, this is a verse that I've thought about a lot over the years. This is such a great verse.
This is such a great prayer to pray.
And who is the guy that's going to pray this?
The guy who's actually meditating about God and God is actually thinking about the things of God.
The one who's going to turn inward and meditate and muse is the person who's going to walk away with some real perspective on life.
And again, this is another good one for young people.
Because young people, they look at life and they think, I've got my whole life ahead of me, and you do.
But you know what? It's going to go by like that.
Just like that. Tomorrow you're going to wake up and be an old man like somebody else.
Not me.
Tomorrow you're going to wake up and be 40.
I'm going to be 42 in two months.
We were talking about designing the stage up here with the Elliots this morning and they were like, do you want us to install a ramp?
They were like, for future proofing, of course.
And I looked at it and said, no, I think I'm good.
But you know, this is something, maybe that's why I've kind of been meditating a little bit more about this.
But this would be good to think about as a young person.
Think about, you know, because people, especially young men, they walk around like they're six feet tall and bulletproof.
Nothing can hurt me.
Oh, how frail you are.
I mean, we see them all the time on the highway.
On those stupid little bikes.
And I'm just thinking, you idiot.
Oh, I can't wait to get one of those.
I'm like, okay.
I'm glad I'm not your mother. Good night.
And here's the thing. Let me just go off about the bikes.
Because I'm sure there's somebody out there that's thinking about it. These motorbikes.
Everybody knows somebody who's either been seriously injured or killed on a motorcycle.
Raise your hand if you know somebody who's been seriously injured or killed on a motorcycle.
Look around.
It's a lot of different hands.
Well, some of those people know the same people.
Does it matter?
I mean, I remember my mom, when I was a kid, she had one of those collage pictures.
And there was a picture of this guy I'd never met.
And she said, yeah, so-and-so, he died on a motorcycle.
And that made an impression on me. I was like, well, I don't want to ride one of those.
But, you know, that's just one example. People walk around, they haven't really given much thought to how frail they really are.
They think that life is just a game.
But the person that's, you know, going to meditate and think about the things of God, you know, they'll come to some realizations.
They'll get some perspective.
Hopefully.
They'll be able to say, Lord, make me to know mine end, the measure of my days, what it is, how frail I am.
Verse 5, behold, thou hast made my days as in handbreath.
And my ages as nothing before thee, verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.
Man, the more you think about and meditate upon the word of God, just the more vain this world becomes.
The more just pointless and futile the world is.
People, they get so up in arms about so many different things and they just, they're so just preoccupied with the things of this world.
Even Christians.
But when we start to really think about the things of God, when we start to meditate upon the things of God,
all those things just really become, we see how vain they really are, how fleeting they are.
That's what he's saying here in this psalm.
He goes on to verse 6 and says, surely every man walketh in a vain show.
I mean, this is the perspective he's getting.
You say, well, how did he walk away with that perspective?
I mean, wouldn't you agree that's a pretty accurate assessment of mankind?
That we're frail, that our life is short-lived, that our days are as in handbreath, that it's a vain show?
I mean, most people would probably agree with that.
But how did he get that?
While I was musing, when I kept silence, when I meditated upon the things of God, when I went and got myself a thought life.
That's when he came to these conclusions.
He said, surely every man walketh in a vain show, surely they are disquieted in vain, heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.
And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee.
Deliver me from all my transgressions, make me not the reproach of the foolish.
I was dumb, I opened up my mouth because thou didst it.
Remove thy stroke away from me, I am consumed by the blow with thine hand.
When thou with rebukes dost correct a man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty, consume me like a moth.
Surely every man is vanity, Selah.
You know, and this observation about how short and frail life is, is something that you see expressed by lots of godly men.
Who no doubt had a godly thought life, who thought about the things of God, who communed with the Lord, who thought about the Lord.
I mean, Moses is another one.
I mean, I think we'd all agree that Moses had a pretty close walk with God.
When you're being called the friend of God.
When you're on two occasions, you know, going up and spending, you know, 40 days in the mount with God.
When God is, you know, speaking you and you spend so much time that your face begins to glow, you know, you're probably somebody who has some perspective.
But notice, you know, he had the same observation here.
He said what? Psalm 90 verse 12.
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
You say, you know what? The best we should do in this life is just count how little time we have and apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Do things that aren't vain. Don't chase after vanity, don't chase after riches, don't chase after the pleasures of this world, but apply ourselves to wisdom.
Apply our hearts unto wisdom. Seek after God.
You know, and people that have a walk with God, people that meditate upon the things of God, they get this.
Because they understand that everything else is just vanity. It's just vain.
If you would, go over to, well actually keep something there. Just keep something there.
I'll read to you from Hebrews chapter 4. But let me just give you some practical, you know, application tonight.
What can you do, what can you walk out of here and change, or what can you walk out of here and do to have a better thought life?
You know, one thing you should be doing is meditating upon the word of God. Obviously.
You know, we have the word of God to direct our thoughts. We have the word of God to dwell on.
The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12,
For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even a dividing asunder of soul and spirit in the joints of marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
So we have this word of God that can discern the intents and the thoughts of our heart.
You know, if we read the word of God, it's going to show us things about ourselves.
You know, maybe that's why some people just don't want to read it.
Because they know if they read it, it's going to be like holding up a mirror.
And they're going to be like a man, you know, holding his face in the glass.
And they're going to say, well, you know, that doesn't look so pretty.
You know, well, you might be in Lamentations where you might think, oh, man, I'm just seeing bitterness.
I'm just seeing wrath. I'm seeing gall. You know, meditate upon that too and change.
But use the word of God to develop a thought life. Use the word of God to meditate upon the things of God.
And who God is. You know, a great way to do this would just be, you know, while you're reading the word of God,
if something stands out to you, mark it down.
You know, do I think that, you know, obviously we have to think about other things.
You know, we can't just 24-7 just always be thinking about things.
And sometimes we want to think about things that are, you know, not that important.
You know, sometimes we want to just relax and let ourselves just kind of think about things and let the world just be. Right? I get that.
But, you know, there should also be times in our day and throughout the week that we are meditating and thinking about the things of God.
If at the very least when you're reading your Bible.
You ever read your Bible and read a whole page and go, what did I just read?
I know I have. You're just like, what am I, you were just, you're like, why am I thinking about coffee?
Oh, because I needed to get a cup.
You know, you're thinking about some email you got to answer. You're thinking about whatever.
And your mind just begins to drift, you know, because concentration is a skill that you have to develop.
Right? So, you know, maybe you have to back up and read it again and be really intent.
You know? Literally maybe hold it closer to your face. You know, that's a tip that I heard.
You know, get your visual, you know, acuity involved there. Really get focused.
But think about the things of God. Think about what you're reading.
And when something jumps out, I mean, meditate on it. Think about it. Mark it down.
Write it on a three by five card and put it in your pocket.
And throughout the week, you know, months, pull that thing out.
And think about it.
You know, that's something that, you know, I've been doing with this psalm in particular in chapter 39.
If you look there in verse 12, he says,
Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear unto my cry, hold not Thy peace at my tears.
For I am a stranger with Thee and a sojourner as all my fathers were.
You know, I read this a couple weeks ago and I've just been meditating upon that and thinking about that.
Just about how, you know, we're strangers here in this world.
That we're just sojourners in this world.
You know, that word just adds a psalm and says, just passing through.
You say, wow, that's profound.
Yeah, but you know, it's helped me to let go of some of the things in this world and not be so holding on so tightly.
And not getting so wrapped up in everything that's going on in the world.
When you understand that you're just a stranger with God.
That you're just passing through this world.
Look at verse 13.
Oh, spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more.
I mean that verse has just been, I've just been running that verse over in my mind over and over again.
You know, how did I get that? I just read it one morning.
Just read it in my meditations, you know, read it in my devotions and just been meditating upon that from time to time throughout the weeks.
And that is something that's, you know, helped me in my life.
To think about the fact, like he said in this psalm, that, you know, our days are as a hand breath.
I'm almost 42, I'm this old man.
Spare me.
That I may recover strength until I go hence and be no more.
Thinking about life is going to end one day.
You know, life is going to come to an end and whatever I'm going to do for God I'm going to accomplish in the next God willing,
and if by reason of strength, 40 years.
And a lot can get done in 40 years.
You know, but we could all think about that, couldn't we? We could all think about the fact that all we have is this life.
But, you know, if we're like the wicked, who through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God, God is not in all his thoughts.
If we're just so proud and just so filled with ourselves and just so, you know, just chasing after vanity,
just so disinterested in the things of God, you know, that's probably not going to be something you think about.
About how all you've got is this one life to serve God. That's probably not even going to enter your mind.
All you're going to think about is how you've only got this one life to just cram as much sin and pleasure and fun as you can into it.
And look, it's not to say that serving God doesn't have its pleasures and it's fun.
I mean, good night. You know, hopefully I'm not gloating too much, but on the way over here, my wife and I were talking and we were just like,
life's never been so good.
That's literally what we said. My life has never been this good. I almost feel guilty.
I almost have to convince, sit there and tell myself like, it's okay. It's all right. Life could be good.
You know, you don't have to sit there and beat yourself up all the time.
That's not to say that Christian life is just this drudgery to get through.
But you'll never realize that if you never meditate upon things if you don't have a thought life.
So use the word of God, develop a thought life, get a thought life if you haven't got one.
Think about the things of God, meditate upon the things of God.
You know, I just tried to give you a few examples tonight of what meditating upon the word of God will do for you.
Give you hope. It'll direct you away from sin and towards the things of God.
It'll help you be a person who has some real gravity.
You know, a person who actually has something worth talking about, not just a bunch of vanity.
It'll make you a person who actually has some usefulness in this world if you meditate upon the things of God.
If you know what the Bible says, you know, you could actually be useful to other people.
I mean, that's what having a thought life that is focused on the word of God will do for you.
Or, you know, just forget the whole sermon.
Just go about your merry way and just fill your head with nonsense, fill your head with vanity,
and be like the vast majority of people in this world today.
You know, I've heard it said, and I agree with the sentiment, that the vast majority of people are idiots.
It's true. I mean, the average person today is not, you know, they're just filled with vanity.
You know, a few minutes on social media will prove that.
You know, I've never had an account, but I'm sure if I got on TikTok, I'm not going to walk away, you know, feeling edified.
But how many millions of people are on there doing whatever they do on there?
I mean, I have an inkling. It's not anything I want to catch my daughter ever doing, my son ever doing.
But that's what most people are alike. Most people are out there just filling their minds with vanity,
just living just useless lives. Selfish, useless lives. Why? Because God is not in all their thoughts.
You know, they're not meditating. They don't have a thought life. Don't let that be you.
Don't live a vain, useless life. Get a thought life. Think about the things of God. Let's pray.
Dear Lord, again, thank you for the many things in your word, Lord, that we can just read and think about and meditate on that will bring us,
Lord, so many edifying things just that will encourage us, that will convict us, that will, Lord, make us grateful and cause us to praise you.
There's just so many great things in your word, Lord, for us to just think on.
Lord, I pray to help us to be people that seek after God, that meditate upon the things of God.
Help us, Lord, to give ourselves wholly to them. We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.
Alright, we'll go ahead and sing one more song before we go.
The song of 230, Heavenly Son of God.
Heavenly Son of God.
Hallelujah, I am rejoicing. Singing His praises, Jesus is mine.
Shadows around me, shadows above me, never conceal my sacred guide.
He is my lightning, there is no darkness ever I'm walking close to His side.
Heavenly Son of God.
Hallelujah, I am rejoicing. Singing His praises, Jesus is mine.
Heavenly Son of God.
Hallelujah, I am rejoicing. Singing His praises, Jesus is mine.
Thank you for coming on the August 5th.